Shane Crosagh Ó Maoláin was an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 Rapparee

Rapparee

Rapparees were Irish guerrilla fighters who operated on the Jacobite side during the 1690s Williamite war in Ireland. Subsequently the name was also given to bandits and highwaymen in Ireland - many former guerrillas having turned to crime after the war was over...

/outlaw

Outlaw

In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...

, who was executed 1722.

Biography

Shane Crosagh was a member of the Derry

Derry

Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

 Ó Maoláin

Ó Maoláin

Ó Maoláin is a Gaelic-Irish surname usually anglicised as Mullin, Mullins, Mullan, Mallon, and Mellon, any of which may have an "'O'" prefix.-Overview:...

 (Mullan) family, who were based in the Keenaght

Keenaght (townland)

Keenaght is a townland lying within the civil parish of Kilcronaghan, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It lies in the south of the parish on the boundary with the civil parish of Desertmartin, and it is bounded by the townlands of: Coolsaragh, Cullion, Gortahurk, Longfield, and Tintagh...

 district of County Londonderry

County Londonderry

The place name Derry is an anglicisation of the old Irish Daire meaning oak-grove or oak-wood. As with the city, its name is subject to the Derry/Londonderry name dispute, with the form Derry preferred by nationalists and Londonderry preferred by unionists...

, having originally lived in the Laggan district of Donegal, and were followers of the Ó Catháin

Ó Cathain

Clan Ó Catháin ....

's.

In the late 1600's, his father, Donal Crossagh Ó Maoláin, a small farmer of Faughanvale, was evicted from his farm for non-payment of rent. Shane Crosagh subsequently became a notorious outlaw, or rapparee.

Many tales concerning his clashes with authority exist. However, he was eventually caught and hanged with his sons in the Diamond in Derry in 1722. The Glenshane Pass

Glenshane Pass

The Glenshane Pass is a major mountain pass cutting through the Sperrin Mountains in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is in the townland of Glenshane on the main Derry to Belfast route, the A6.-Features:It is a Special Area of Conservation...

, the main road between Derry and Belfast is named after him.

Crossagh

His nickname, Crossagh, meaning pock-marked. It was an ancestral family name, and as such used by his father, probably derived from an ancestor who was scarred as a result of the pox

Pox

A pox is a type of disease, often caused by an animal virus, characterised by pockmarks. The term may be used to refer to disease.Pox, as a disease, may refer to:*Poxviruses...

. Possibly it was originally used to distinguish them from other Ó Maoláin's. Shane himself was considered handsome by local women.

External links

• http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/index.cfm?fuseaction=History&Surname=Mullin&UserID=